FEMA had left the building

MIKE GEORGE

Published
6:00 pm CST, Tuesday, November 8, 2005

FEMA had set up office at Calvary Baptist the week before, scheduling appointments and taking walk-ups from Monday - Friday from 9 am to 6 pm. The Saturday was due to overflow - they just couldn't handle the load.

Then, on Monday, Oct. 24, and Tuesday, Oct. 25 there was no sign of them. They had left the building.

Part of the draw of cars was because a troop of Texas National Guard was there still handing out ice, water, and food, but they too were gone. Everything must have gotten to the point, all at once that everyone had been taken care of, so both organizations packed their bags and left.

Speaking of FEMA, there might be some news stories coming up on fraud. Prior to a meeting of SBA representatives I attended a couple of weeks ago some interesting talk among some business people that were there evolved.

Seems like this "$2,000 free money thing" has been hit in ways you wouldn't think possible. One business entrepreneur was explaining the loss of some key employees she needed to keep her business running. From what was said, the employees were from the same family and they all lived in a single dwelling together. Each of them applied for the FEMA money and all of them got it, about $12,000 all together.

Well, guess who didn't need to work for a few months, so they took off from their jobs?

Another story had some "locals" driving up to Dallas to an American Red Cross office with children and claiming they were displaced from Rita. Well, these people were paid cash, a sum to whomever, and for each of their dependent children.

If that wasn't bad enough, the story went on that they took the circuitous route back to Liberty County through San Antonio and stopped off a one or two more American Red Cross offices on the way. They repeated the exercise at each of the other stops, getting more cash money as "displaced citizens."

The problem is coming when FEMA begins to check and find out where all its money went. Abuses will be discovered and the Federal Government does not like to be taken advantage of. Some will get slaps on the wrists, but depending on who's in charge, who's investigating and what they find, some will most likely find the full weight of a "ticked-off federal bureaucracy" falling in on them. Some will be made examples of.

If you think you've taken unfair advantage of your federal government, you may want to figure out the overpayment and make restitution before they find out.

Oh, and don't talk about it to anyone. It may be you have a neighbor that had a legitimate claim and didn't get squat. If you got more than what you should have, well, it just might not sit so well with your neighbor.